Letters to the Editor

A bad rap

Brian Smith, I read your article about Eminem (“The Em-word,” Metro Times, Nov. 26-Dec. 2) and I was very impressed. As an African-American woman, I was totally upset when I heard the comment that Eminem had made. How can you disrespect the black woman when part of your sales come from the black culture, and all of your business associates are African-American? My personal opinion is that he used black culture to get the fame that he wanted — and now that he has it, it doesn’t matter to him what he says or who he hurts in the process. —Sheilah Morris, sheilah.morris@onstar.com, Detroit

Melissa Giannini’s article about Yoko Ono (“Yoko’s train comes to DIA,” Metro Times, Nov. 26-Dec. 2) raises bothersome questions. Ono says “[I] appreciate your effort in creating such a beautiful society of very complex, multiracial situation. I think that I want to report to the universe of your effort.” Is she really talking about one of the most segregated cities in the country? And why is she our voice to the “universe”?

The sponsor, Gilbert B. Silverman, is also quoted; “But you have to look at the freight train and then get a feeling of what the idea is and then really feel the art.” What’s the idea? As stated, it is about Mexican immigrants who died in a freight train. But what are we to get from the art itself? That it is wrong to kill people? Doesn’t TV news do this every day? “Today a tragic accident killed a family of four. They were on their way to drop their daughter off to start her first day of college. ...”

This is not to say that the DIA should not display the work, or that Ono should not have made it. Even Britney Spears can sing about loving everyone. Who wants cruelty to prevail? —Ed Sarkis, edsarkis@hotmail.com, Troy

I would like to commend Jeremy Voas for his article on Steve Wilson (“Role reversal,” Metro Times, Nov. 26-Dec. 2). While I applaud the efforts of any journalist to find out what’s happening with our school system and whether our tax dollars are being spent wisely, I found Wilson’s behavior abhorrent. There is a certain level of decorum that should be employed when doing investigative journalism, if for no other reason that to ensure the credibility and professionalism of the story. Now to read that Wilson and his maybe/maybe not wife are deceiving the good citizens of Florida for their personal benefit speaks volumes about Wilson and the station that employs him. —D. Roberson, Detroit

A writing machine

Jack Lessenberry, your piece on JFK had to be the best one you’ve written to date, and you’ve written some doozies (“And every man should try,” Metro Times, Nov. 19-25). You captured what I’d been thinking but couldn’t find words to express — that Kennedy wasn’t just a bunch of sordid affairs and his cold-fish wife, but a symbol of what America could be. The quotes you found were absolutely on point.

You are a veritable writing machine who can write vivid, compelling, accurate stories for a vast variety of sources, and yet take on more.

If I could write half as well, as prolifically, I’d be mighty glad. —Maureen McDonald, Detroit

How could you be so neo-conservative and corrupt as to allow a gun to be placed on the cover of your fine publication (Metro Times, Nov. 19-25)? Don’t you know that you are endorsing the ultra right-wing and the NRA by doing this? It almost forced me to not to even take it home, but I did so by tearing the cover off and leaving it at the stand. Wouldn’t a person trying to survive in the jungle have been more suitable? What am I going to see next: a story on how a drug-addicted Rush Limbaugh is a role model for coming clean? Or maybe how we should support that liar-tyrant President Bush in the next election? In the future, please try and be more judgmental on what you place on the cover. Always remember that not everybody may read Metro Times, but I bet almost everybody in the metro Detroit area sees the cover — including and most importantly children. —Jeff Burdzinski, Macomb